U.N. Human Rights Body Rejects Debate

The top U.N. human rights body Thursday rejected a proposal to hold an emergency meeting on Iraq, sparing the United States from likely criticism over its war to oust Saddam Hussein.

Wary that any debate would turn political, Canada, Japan and several countries from Europe and Latin America lined up with the United States to defeat a resolution calling on the 53-country U.N. Human Rights Commission to "consider the effects of the war on the Iraqi people and their humanitarian situation."

The resolution, sponsored by Russia, Syria, Sudan, Malaysia, Libya, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Algeria and Congo, also said the commission should "reaffirm the applicability of the fourth Geneva Convention among the belligerent parties."

The fourth Geneva Convention aims to ensure the protection of civilians during war or under occupation.

The resolution was opposed by 25 countries and won the support of 18, including Pakistan, Brazil, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. Chile, India and five other countries abstained and three were absent.

After the vote, the head of the U.S. delegation, former U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, told the commission that Washington "regrets profoundly the severe humanitarian problems suffered by the people of Iraq" both before and during the conflict.

"The United States also pledges to make a maximum effort to help to overcome the humanitarian problems created by this conflict," she said.

The commission, which meets for six weeks every March and April, often gets bogged down in debate and earns criticism for failing to tackle human rights issues.

"We must avoid grandstanding which will lead us nowhere and which will certainly not improve the situation currently faced by the Iraqi people," said Sergio Vieira de Mello, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Rory Mungoven, spokesman for the New York-based pressure group Human Rights Watch, said the delegates should have taken the opportunity to focus on the situation facing ordinary Iraqis.

"While there's always a risk that a debate like this might become political, that doesn't excuse Western governments for suppressing the issue," he said. "The commission shouldn't sit on its hands while a human rights and humanitarian crisis unfolds."

International concern has mounted about civilian suffering in Iraq. Food handouts _ on which 60 percent of the 22 million Iraqis rely _ have been interrupted. Aid officials also worry that war damage to pipelines and treatment plants is forcing Iraqis to drink polluted water, increasing the likelihood of cholera and dysentery.

There have been five previous emergency sessions of the commission, the last in 2000, when it examined Israeli-Palestinian clashes in the West Bank and Gaza _ a meeting Israel said was ill-advised.

It also convened in 1992 and 1993 to investigate "ethnic cleansing" in the former Yugoslavia, in 1994 to tackle Rwanda's genocide, and in 1999 to try to halt abuses in East Timor.